The newly elected German Chancellor is in Paris on his first foreign trip, less than a day after taking office yesterday.
Among other things, a joint French-German defense and security council is promised to discuss defense issues. Merz mentions, among other things, continued German-French cooperation on the production and development of creating a European nuclear umbrella under France and the UK.
We will give our respective ministers a mandate to initiate that discussion, says the Federal Chancellor at a press conference.
Furthermore, it is established that the support for Ukraine remains firm and a promise of "robust" security guarantees to the country.
We will continue to support Ukraine together, promises Merz – although he is also careful to note that the US is still needed in this context.
President Trump has our full support in trying to stop the war and the killing. We cannot put an end to this in Ukraine without continued US involvement, says the German Federal Chancellor in Paris.
